I Missed You - An Aster Phoenix Oneshot
by rizanicole
Summary: This is my second Aster Phoenix one shot. It's quite different from most of my other stories, in my opinion, but I still quite like it and hope that you will, too! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! **Originally published on Quizilla 8/08/2012**


I'd just heard the news - he was finally back. I stalked angrily across Duel Academy's lawn towards the docks at the edge of the island.

Aster Phoenix had left the school for six whole months to go participate in some pro-dueling tournament on the other side of the world. That on its own would have been okay, but he left without telling anyone about it beforehand. We just woke up one day and he was gone. No one even knew where he was until we heard about the tournament on the news.

What's even worse is that Aster and I had been a couple before he left. I had cared a lot about him, and I thought he cared about me, too. But I guess I was wrong, since he couldn't bother to tell me about his little six-month excursion across the planet.

Now here we were, assembled in front of the docks staring up at his private yacht, waiting for him to show himself.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my friends Alexis and Jasmine looking at me worriedly. They knew as well as I that this could only end badly. When Aster had first left, I was just sad, because he had broken my heart. But as time went on, I also grew angry that he had left me the way he did. And now, I needed to confront him about what he'd done.

After what seemed like forever, the cabin door to the yacht finally opened, and Aster Phoenix emerged. I felt my heart leap in my chest a little when I saw him; whether I liked it or not, I really had missed him. He looked basically the same as the last time I'd seen him. Same shiny gray suit, same confident expression. As he waved to the group of students assembled on the docks, his eyes scanned the crowd as if he were looking for someone specific. When his gaze fell on me, his eyes seemed to light up. He climbed down off of the yacht and walked over to stand in front of me.

This entire time, I'd just been glaring at him, still angry at him for leaving for so long. But based on the smile on his face, I could tell he somehow hadn't noticed.

"Jenny!" He said cheerfully, as he raised his arms to embrace me in a hug, "I missed you!"

Before he could put his arms around me, I raised my hands up in front of myself to stop him. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked him coldly.

He looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean, Jen? I'm finally back. I've missed you." He raised his arms to hug me again, a bit less confidently this time, but I just stepped away from him, out of his reach.

"What makes you think I still want to be with you, Aster?" I asked, my voice rising slightly in anger. It hurt me to act this way towards him, but there was no way I could just forget about what he'd done. I knew people were staring at the two of us at this point, but I didn't care.

Aster, however, apparently didn't want people to see what was going on. "Come here," he said after looking around for a moment, beckoning for me to follow him as he walked out of the crowd and towards a more secluded area of campus. I'm not sure why I bothered, but for whatever reason I followed after him. He led me into the woods nearby, going far enough in to make sure the trees hid us from view.

"Okay," he said as he turned around to face me after the two of us were alone. "So, what's going on here?"

I stared at him in disbelief. "Isn't it obvious? You left for six whole months without giving me any warning, Aster! And you didn't contact me the entire time you were gone! THAT'S what's going on!"

He sighed, a guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry. I know I should have told you before I left, but it was a last-minute thing. I didn't even know I was going to be leaving until the night before."

"But you still could have told me, Aster," I insisted. He was giving me a sad look, but I wouldn't let myself be swayed by it. I was the one who had been wronged, not him. "Or if you really couldn't tell me then, you could have called or wrote sometime during the half a year that you were gone."

He sighed again. "I know I should have called you, but I was busy with the tournament. I'm really, really sorry, Jenny."

I looked directly at him. "How can I believe you, Aster? I know you had lots of stuff to do, but I'm pretty sure you could've made time for a five-minute phone call if you'd really wanted to. I've spent the last six months wondering if you'd ever even cared about me at all. Besides, you're a world-famous celebrity with millions of adoring fans. Who knows how many girls you've been with since I saw you last?" I whispered the last part as I looked down at the ground, heartbroken by the all-too-likely possibility that the guy I loved had cheated on me.

At my statement, Aster suddenly grew angry and took a few steps towards me. "Don't even say that," he said in a pained voice. "I may not be perfect, Jenny - hell, I may not even be worth your time - but I have _always_ been loyal to you."

I looked up from the ground into his eyes, and knew in that moment that he was telling the truth. I could see that I'd really hurt him, and that I'd crossed a line with what I'd said.

"I'm sorry," I murmured.

"It's okay," he said after a moment, reaching forward and grabbing my hand in his. This time, I didn't resist his touch. "I just want you to know that I would never do something like that... because I love you."

I was absolutely shocked by what he'd said. He'd never told me that before. "You do?"

He nodded, never taking his eyes off of mine. "I didn't even realize it until after I'd left. But I missed you so much when I was gone that I knew." He rubbed the back of my hand with his thumb and took a deep breath. "It scared me, Jenny. That's why I haven't contacted you all this time. I didn't know what to do, I've never been in love before. Last night I finally decided that I couldn't stand to not be with you, so I planned to tell you today when I got back. I was so happy when I saw you that, for a minute there, I forgot you had a reason to be mad at me."

After his little speech, I reached forward and grabbed Aster's other hand, so I now had one of his hands in each of mine. I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "I love you too, Aster," I said to him sincerely. "I've loved you all along. That's why I was so upset when you didn't contact me. Because I thought I was in love with someone who didn't care about me."

Aster shook his head. "Jen, I care about you more than I care about anyone else in the world."

I smiled at him, forcing back tears of joy. I'd taken everything he'd done the wrong way, and now I was just relieved to have him back.

"So, what do you say? Do you forgive me?" he asked nervously.

I pretended to ponder his question for a moment, then leaned forward to rest my forehead against his, still smiling at him. "Yeah, I forgive you."

After that, Aster didn't wait any longer. He moved his face forward the last couple of inches and connected his lips with mine in a slow and gentle kiss. He took one of his hands out of mine and moved it to rest on my lower back, bringing our bodies closer together. I moved my free hand up to tangle it in his hair, which caused him to moan slightly.

Our kiss soon began to grow more passionate, which wasn't surprising considering that we'd been apart for so long. Aster slid his tongue into my mouth, which made me moan. He'd always been an awesome kisser. He then carefully walked me backwards until my back was against a tree. He placed his hands on either side of my waist and pressed his body fully against mine as I put my arms around his neck. A minute later, Aster trailed one of his hands down to rest on the back of my thigh, so I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his middle.

After a few more minutes of this, I became vaguely aware of the sound of someone walking through the woods towards us, but I couldn't bring myself to care. So, I just kept kissing Aster as the footsteps grew closer.

"Hey, Jenny, are you oka - whoa, what's going on?" Alexis stopped mid-sentence when she saw Aster and me.

I finally pulled away from Aster's lips to address my friend, and saw that she and Jasmine had both come looking for us.

"Hey, guys," I said, a little embarrassed. I was still pushed up against a tree with my legs wrapped around Aster's torso, my arms draped loosely around his neck. "What brings you two all the way out here?"

"Well, we came to make sure that you hadn't killed Aster..." Alexis trailed off, looking from one of us to the other. "But apparently that won't be a problem. Is it safe to assume that you guys are still a couple?"

Aster nodded, a little out of breath. "Yeah, we're still together."

"Okay then," Jasmine said, a bit awkwardly. "We'll just leave you two alone. Dinner's in ten minutes though, just so you know."

The two of them turned and left, seeming glad they had a chance to remove themselves from the situation. Once they were gone, Aster looked back into my eyes and helped me down, laughing a little.

"Thanks," I said, laughing with him as I reluctantly removing my arms from around his neck.

"No problem," he said. He paused and just stared at me for a moment, then suddenly pulled me into a hug with my head resting on his chest. I wrapped my arms around him in return, loving how safe I felt in his embrace.

"I promise I'm never gonna leave you again, Jenny," he said softly.

I smiled up at him. "Good, then I won't have to kick your ass."

He laughed and kept his arms around me for a few minutes longer, holding me close to him. For a while, neither of us said anything.

When one of us eventually did speak, it was Aster. "I love you, Jenny," he whispered, kissing the top of my head.

I looked up at him and smiled. "I love you, too, Aster," I said, giving him a short, soft kiss on the lips.

A moment later, I removed myself from his arms. "Alright, I'm hungry. Let's go get some food." Aster laughed at me, putting one of his arms around my shoulders. "Okay, whatever you say."

As we walked back towards the school, I couldn't help but smile to myself. After waiting for six long months, I'd finally gotten the guy I love back.

And I couldn't be happier.


End file.
